2-Propanol (isopropyl alcohol; IPA)-water mixture reflects a homogeneous minimum-boiling azeotrope (at 80.3-80.4 degrees C, 87.4-87.7 wt.%). Some methods of enhanced distillation of this mixture have been developed, such as azeotropic distillation, reactive and extractive distillation, and membrane separation either in the form of membrane distillation or pervaporation. This work is a preliminary exploratory study and denotes a state of the art of technology, called fixed adsorptive distillation, in which distillation and adsorption are applied simultaneously. Fixed adsorptive distillation consists of two raschig ring-packing distillation columns, which are equipped with an inter-bed of adsorbent filled of silica gel. First column (I) distils the mixture to produce distillate at slightly below the azeotropic composition. Silica then adsorbs selectively one of the components (water), so that IPA rises in purity passing the azeotropic point. Finally, the second column (II) distils it to achieve higher composition or pure. This research has aims to investigate the possibility of fixed adsorptive distillation in application of enhancement of azeotropic IPA-water solution; the influence of feed composition of column I and the ratio of adsorptive and bypass flow on the purity of the second column product. The result shows that this method can pass the azeotropic point; the higher the feed composition of column I as well as the higher the ratio of flow is, the higher the purity of the second column product is. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.